The present disclosure relates generally to lenses for photolithography systems and, more particularly, to an objective lens for use in a liquid immersion lithography process.
The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing have been needed.
The growth of the semiconductor IC industry is driven by Moore's law: “The complexity of minimum component cost has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year”. In the course of integrated circuit evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while feature size (i.e., the smallest component or line that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
One of the factors enabling the continued minimization of feature size is improvement in photolithography and its ability to print smaller features. The minimum feature size in an optical lithography system may be determined in part by diffraction, which is related to the wavelength of light and the medium through which the light shines. Accordingly, one approach to reducing feature size and improving resolution is to use light with a shorter wavelength. Another approach is to use a medium between the lens and the substrate other than air. Since the index of refraction of a medium (referred to as ‘n’) is larger than one, the wavelength in the medium is reduced by the factor of n. This may improve resolution.
One such method of enhancing resolution using a non-air medium is referred to as immersion lithography. Depending on the inserted medium, immersion lithography may be classified as solid immersion lithography or liquid immersion lithography. However, in liquid immersion lithography, there may be chemical reaction and physical damage between an optical lens used during lithography and the liquid used for immersion. Such a chemical reaction or other mechanism may damage the optical system and degrade the system's resolution.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved optical lens and method of manufacturing such a lens.